Hello and welcome to Turbos and Tantrums, an attempt to tell the story of modern Formula One, which for various reasons expanded on in the introduction I have declared to begin with the 1981 season – largely because you’ve got to start somewhere.
For each season, I’ll start with a review of the teams and drivers competing in the new season, and proceed through each race chronologially, making an attempt to avoid writing with hindsight or anticipating events yet to come. No “the first of many victories to come” or “this would turn out to be his last victory in F1 even though he continued driving for several years”. Just the story of the season unfolding as it did at the time.
The aim, such as it is, is to look at the narrative of the ongoing seasons. Although we may know who won the championship in a given year, it may surprise some and come as a nice reminder to others the way in which that was achieved, the characters and “sub-plots” woven through the main championship battles and so on.
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
It chucked it down on Friday, rendering free practice even more moot than usual. Saturday morning was wet too, but then it dried out for the afternoon qualifying session, leaving teams less than an hour to get their dry settings dialled in and make their tyre selections. As a result, there were more spins and excursions than usual, and grid positions mostly came down to who’d got the setup right first: Villeneuve took Pole again, but it was Jean Alesi lined up next to him, then Michael Schumacher third after being hampered by a mystery Ferrari ailment. Fourth was a happy Giancarlo Fisichella, with Häkkinen fifth after a dreadful day which began with a wishbone failing and sending him flying off at Les Combes. The team frantically replaced all their composite wishbones with metal ones. Ralf Schumacher was 6th, Frentzen an unhappy 7th after having an off, with Diniz an excellent 8th and outqualifying his team-mate Hill in 9th. David Coulthard was back in 10th after clouting the wall at Bus Stop on his last flying lap. Berger was a disappointed 13th after also having a crash, while Irvine was going to have to pull off the start of all times to come back from 17th.
crews once again frantically discussed what to do – in particular as to whether intermediates or full wets were the way to go – the sun began to shine through again in places. With parts of the track starting to dry and others still almost flooded, the organisers made the sensible, albeit unprecedented, decision to start the race under a Safety Car to allow all the drivers to get used to the conditions and hopefully squeegee off a bit of a drier line.
to start the race proper. Without the usual frantic charge down to La Source, the “start” was incident-free, and Villeneuve began to pull away from Alesi, who had Schumacher and Fisichella all over him. Michael forced his way past Jean at La Source at the start of lap 5, and immediately closed up on Villeneuve and took the lead by the end of the lap.
made the bod move of coming in for slicks on lap 8, while Frentzen on full wets was finally overtaken by Coulthard, with Diniz following him through and Hill soon following suit. Heinz-Harald made the sensible decision to come in for slicks, and cars started following suit, including Villeneuve making his second stop already. So manic was it over these laps that both Pedro Diniz and Jan Magnussen found themselves running in the top three. When Mika Salo set the fastest lap in the Tyrrell on slicks, it was definitely time for Michael Schumacher to come in, which he did on lap 14, with well over a minute in hand over second-placed Alesi. He rejoined still with a lead of 47 seconds, and once the pit stops finally shook out, Alesi was second, Fisichella third, Häkkinen fourth, Herbert fifth and Coulthard sixth.
The second half of the race was rather less frenetic, with Schumacher cruising to a hugely dominant victory that was never in doubt, barring technical gremlins. Fisichella drove calmly and didn’t have a tyre explosion this time to take second place ahead of Mika Häkkinen, who had to stop trying to get past and defend instead when Frentzen caught up in the closing laps. Herbert was fifth and Villeneuve sixth after a deeply disappointing afternoon.
Michael Schumacher
Jacques Villeneuve
Jean Alesi
Gerhard Berger
Eddie Irvine
Mika Häkkinen
Giancarlo Fisichella
Rubens Barrichello
Shinji Nakano
Jordan-Peugeot 
Sauber-Petronas 
Hungaroring
Michael Schumacher claimed pole in the new car, and Villeneuve likewise had a late excursion off track on his way to second on the grid. Third on the grid, though, was a major turn-up for the books: Damon Hill. He’d gone fifth-fastest on Friday on his Bridgestones, depsite only getting one lap because his mechanics spent 55 minutes trying to find an electronic problem in his gearbox, but Saturday was broadly a Goodyear day and still he’d gone third. Hungary is not a power circuit, after all, and Damon and Tom Walkinshaw both agreed that they had a neatly balanced chassis. Fourth was Häkkinen, who’d been second right up until Villeneuve and Hill made their last laps in the dying seconds of the session, then Irvine and Frentzen. Heinz-Harald and his engineers had taken a gamble in choosing harder tyres (you have to qualify on the tyres you intend to race on) which meant less grip for a quick lap but if the race was hot they’d last much better. The Jordan team had made the same call, but their boys were down in 13th (Fisichella) and 14th (Schumacher) so they’d have a real job making up places. The Benetton drivers weren’t thrilled with 7th and 9th on the grid, split by Coulthard who’d had his best lap ruined by a gearbox gremlin-induced spin. Johnny Herbert rounded out the top ten in his Sauber, with returning teammate Morbidelli 17th.
When the lights went out, Schumacher stormed off to keep his lead, but Villeneuve was tardy away and Hill squeezed through to take second. Irvine got a cracking start and went up to third, hotly pursued by Häkkinen. Villeneuve was fifth just ahead of his team-mate Frentzen, with Herbert also having a good start to slot in seventh, taking advantage of a near-collision between the two Benettons. Magnussen and Morbidelli had a coming-together further back, which sent both of them off the track and into the pits for repairs.
Then, at the end of lap 10, with the British ITV coverage off on a commercial break, Hill got past Schumacher to take the lead going into turn 1. By the end of the next lap, Damon was over 2.6s ahead, and continued to pull out at a rate of knots. Häkkinen’s hydraulics died on lap 13 – joining Magnussen and Morbidelli, who’d both retired a few laps after pitting for repairs – so Villeneuve now took up the pursuit of Schumacher, and managed to get past quickly and set off in pursuit of his former team-mate. Schumacher was clearly having trouble and eventually came in to the pits on lap 14, which put Frentzen into third and the German was on a charge, putting in a series of fastest laps and closing in on his Canadian team-mate. Schumacher, meanwhile, rejoined 12th behind Nakano.
on new tyres, when suddenly the Williams started shooting out squirts of flame, then smoke. He came in on lap 29, but only to retire: part of the refuelling connector on his car had sprung loose on the lap before his stop, and fuel had been slopping out and igniting on the hot rear bodywork. Unfortunately, this also meant that the team couldn’t refuel him and he was out.
Irvine was fourth, with Herbert fifth while the Schumacher brothers were now dicing over the last point, with Michael keeping Ralf behind him. Pedro Diniz’ undistinguished afternoon ended with a battery problem after 53 laps, while Irvine dropped back after stopping, joining the back of a queue led by Michael Schumacher in 5th, with his brother now 6th, with Nakano 7th and Irvine now 8th. There were 14 laps to go and he was clearly holding up his brother and the rest. Meanwhile Damon Hill now had a lead of some 30s and was looking as comfortable at the front as he had in a Williams for the previous four years.
only catch up by three points in the standings. The laps ticked down towards a famous win for Damon Hill and Arrows, while the cameras were mainly watching the 4-5-6-7 battle. And then a bit of bad news – Damon was finding a problem with his throttle and slowed down. With just two laps to go, Hill was lapping very slowly and Villeneuve was gaining at a rate of knots. But did the Canadian have the time to catch up?
Hockenheimring
announced the signing for 1998 of Giancarlo Fisichella. However, he said he remained in love with racing, and hoped to continue into 1998 – whether he would be left with a seat when the music stopped, we would have to see. The Jordan team had another cheeky “non-tobacco” livery, with the frond and rear wings being adorned with “Fisssssi” and Sssschuey”.
would begin with everyone on slick tyres. The start lights came on and when they went off, Berger got a perfect start, keeping his lead, while Fisichella also started well but had Häkkinen and Schumacher swarming all over him. The German nicked third, but Fisichella stayed second, while further back Irvine and Frentzen had had a coming-together, leaving both with burst tyres flapping and pushing Coulthard onto the gravel in the process. All three limped round to the pits: Irvine’s car had actually caught fire from dragging on the ground, Frentzen’s front suspension was irreparably broken and DC came in for a new nose and left, but his gearbox immediatly went phut and he was out too. Almost unnoticed, Tarso Marques was out on the startline with a broken transmission, so there were four missing by the end of lap 2.
Meanwhile, Berger was pulling away from Fisichella at a rate of around a second a lap, who in turn was keeping Schumacher behind him, with Häkkinen, Alesi and Villeneuve all a few seconds further back. Jean in particular was giving Mika a hard time, while Jacques was finding it impossible to make any impression on the Benetton ahead of him. Further back, Damon Hill swarmed past Herbert, but on lap 9, Diniz tried to do the same and barged straight into the back of him, putting both of them into the gravel trap. Other than that, nothing much changed for the first 17 laps until Berger made his first pit stop. He rejoined right behind third–placed Häkkinen. He wasn’t stuck for long, however, getting by at the first chicane. Fisichella was by now leading and had pulled away from Schumacher, the German having pushed his tyres too hard in the early stage. He came in on lap 22, promoting Berger to second and emerging behind fourth-placed Alesi (who had also stopped) and ahead of Häkkinen. In third place was Jarno Trulli, who had also yet to stop but was doing well in the Prost.
Fisichella came in a few laps later for his only stop, emerging just ahead of Alesi and Berger was back in the lead. But Fisi was on a one-stop strategy while Berger had to stop once more, and didn’t currently have a big enough lead. He had just six laps to pull away over 10s, and was less than a second a lap faster. At the back, Katayama had been running a solid last until he caught up with Verstappen, only to make a bit of a mess of the overtaking attempt (he didn’t get a lot of practice with them these days), and twanged something which made his car vibrate badly, and additionally knocked out his pit-car radio. Unable to see his pit-board with the vibration and unable to hear his pit crew, he ran out of fuel on lap 24. Berger’s case wasn’t helped when Magnussen had (yet another) Ford engine failure right in front of him, laying a huge smokescreen and causing the Austrian to have to lift and tiptoe through.
Annoyed, he got his foot down again and started trying to pull out again, while Alesi pitted on lap 31 and emerged behind a whole queue of traffic. A lap or two later, just as Berger peeled in for his second stop, Villeneuve spun off into the gravel while trying to harass Trulli for third place. No points for Williams at Hockenheim then – but everyone was watching Berger’s stop as he came out just behind Fisichella. Only half a second or so in it, but he was behind and now it was a straight race to the finish. Fisichella had run well in Monaco, only to seemingly crack under the pressure late on; how would he react in the remaining ten laps? It didn’t take that long – Giancarlo made a minor mistake going into the Ostkurve and Gerhard pounced, out-dragging the Jordan down the straight and getting past into the last chicane. As Michael Schumacer also bore down on Fisichella, Berger found himself in the same position as he was in last year, leading the race with only a few laps to go and would just be praying that this time his engine would take him all the way to the end, while Fisichella continued to keep in touch with the Benetton and was ready to take advantage if it didn’t.
Sadly for Fisichella, he was not even to see second place – his left-rear tyre blew out leaving him to limp back round on three wheels and get them changed. The flapping tyre rubber had cut the oil lines to his radiator, though, and he soon retired. Ferrari brought Schumacher in for a splash-and-dash later on – he had plenty of lead over Häkkinen but emerged only just ahead of the Finn. The Ferrari just had more speed than the McLaren at Hockenheim, though, and was able to pull away, while Mika had Jarno Trulli’s Prost right behind him and behind him were Ralf Schumacher and Jean Alesi.
This time, the Renault stayed in its customary number of pieces and Gerhard Berger swept home to take a popular win – the tenth of his career, and the first for Benetton post-Schumacher. The fans at the circuit cheered almost as loudly for him as they did for second-placed Michael (who gave Fisichella a sidepod-ride back to the pits on his slowdown lap), with Mika in his Mercedes-engined McLaren completing a Germanic podium, and his first top-three spot since Adelaide. Trulli, Ralf and Alesi took the minor points, a good result for Prost with Nakano 7th.
Silverstone
having failed to persuade Martin Brundle to drive so Norberto Fontana kept his seat. The Jordan team, meanwhile, had a cheeky take on the stricture on tobacco advertising – instead of the usual “Benson & Hedges”, the cars now read “Bitten & Hisses”, referring to the unique snake paintjob. Williams, meanwhile went with “R.?” instead of Rothmans.
but then he’d been downplaying expectations all weekend in France and look what happened there. Schumacher Jr would start fifth in the Jordan, the first of six drivers covered by just one tenth of a second: Coulthard, Irvine, Wurz, Herbert and Fisichella filled out the top ten. Alesi was an unhappy 11th, then there was nearly a second back to Damon Hill, an encouraged 12th in the Arrows. Fontana had done well to post 14th-fastest time, only to be relegated to the back of the grid after missing a weight check: he displaced Rubens Barrichello who had qualified dead last after the Stewart team had had three engine failures during qualifying.
Villeneuve was quickly away and into the lead while behind him the two McLarens and Schumacher jockeyed for second place. The Ferrari won, and the two silver cars tucked in behind, Coulthard having got ahead of Häkkinen. Katayama had a senior moment off the start line and somehow skewed sideways into the wall before he even crossed the startline. The luckless Frentzen also didn’t complete the lap – trying to make up places from the back he turned in on Verstappen and got hit, punting him off and causing Verstappen to have to come in to a new nose (to the surprise of the Tyrrell team, because the prang also broke his radio). By the time the leaders came back round to Woodcote, Katayama’s car was still there, right where anyone running wide would hit it, so out came the safety car while it was moved.
Villeneuve to set off into the lead again, with Michael Schumacher again in hot pursuit. Behind them, David Coulthard was already starting to drop back and his team-mate Häkkinen was keeping pace and Herbert and Ralf Schumacher were behind the two McLarens with Irvine climbing all over the back of the Jordan. DC was on a one-stop strategy and was finding his McLaren not only heavy but also handling badly with a brake issue, but whether Mika was having the same problems or just didn’t want to risk taking them both out, a queue was developing behind the pair of them. By lap 11, the gap from Schumacher back to Coulthard was some 12 seconds already, while behind the McLarens Herbert, Ralf Schumacher, Irvine, Fisichella, Alesi, Wurz, Nakano and Hill were all covered by a second or two.
to do. Coulthard was really struggling now, locking brakes over and over, with the two Benettons crawling all over him and Jacques Villeneuve now attached to the back. Eventually, DC came in for a slick 9.2s stop, followed a lap or two later by Häkkinen, but Villeneuve seemed unable to make much of an impression on the two Benettons. Alesi made his stop on lap 36, just before Schumacher came in early for his second stop – he’d been feeling something up with the left-rear for a couple of laps, and the team decided to see if new boots would help. It didn’t – the problem was with the wheel bearing, which promptly failed on his out-lap: Michael toured back round to retire.
Gutting for Mika, but he didn’t show it, waving to the crowd and throwing his gloves to the appreciative fans. Jacques, meanwhile, gratefully inherited the lead which had seemed a long way off when he’d had his pit-stop disaster, and cruised home to take the win he really needed to revive his title challenge.
Arrows-Yamaha
Williams-Renault
Ferrari
McLaren-Mercedes
Jordan-Peugeot
Prost-Mugen Honda
Sauber-Petronas
Tyrrell-Ford
Minardi-Hart
Stewart-Ford
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
17. Norberto Fontana 
21. Tarso Marques 
themselves unhappy with the car and unsure what the problem was. Villeneuve didn’t help matters by burying his in a wall in the warm-up and having to use the T-car for qualifying proper. Eddie Irvine put his own Ferrari fifth, alongside Jarno Trulli who looked like a very good replacement for Panis (especially given his lack of experience with car and team). Alain Prost has been making noises about moving the team away from their Magny-Cours base to somewhere a bit more sensible, so again will be looking to get a good result here. Next up were the Benettons of Wurz and Alesi, the young Austrian continuing to impress, and then the McLarens of Coulthard and Häkkinen. The car just doesn’t perform well with mechanical grip, and lots of it is needed in the infield sections. Fisichella put his Jordan 11th, with Nakano an encouraging 12th (though nearly a second behind his new team-mate – you wonder what someone else could do in that car) with Hill 17th and behind his team-mate Diniz, Fontana 20th and Marques 22nd and last.
Schumacher), the race got underway. Schumacher M got a great start to retain his lead with Frentzen in hot pursuit, while Schumacher R didn’t, and was swamped by Villeneuve and a fast-starting Irvine. He managed to fend off the McLarens, who’d both got ahead of Trulli and the Benettons, while further up, Irvine got past Villeneuve for third. Hill got pushed into the gravel and had to trundle round for a new front wing, but otherwise everyone got through the first lap, with the order Schumacher M – Frentzen – Irvine – Villeneuve – Schumacher R – Coulthard.
Once again, the racing became spread out, with Schumacher, Frentzen, Irvine, Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher and Fisichella the top six. Both Stewarts expired within 3 laps with brake (Magnussen, lap 34) and engine (Barrichello, lap 37) failures. Before much longer, though, the skies began to darken considerably, there was a clap of thunder and it started to spit. It was lap 40, maybe 6 or 7 laps away from the second stops – the track wasn’t nearly wet enough to come in for intermediates now, but before long cars would be running low on fuel and teams would have to make a call. Everyone began watching the skies – and each other – closely. Irvine was first in, then Schumacher, both for slicks. Frentzen was in a lap after Michael for the same. The pitstops also saw Coulthard have a really good stop and get ahead of Ralf Schumacher, while Alex Wurz’ gearbox had a bit of a moment as he pulled away, leaving him sitting in the pit lane fishing for a gear for a few seconds, which put him back behind his team-mate Alesi once more.
By lap 60, with 12 to go Michael Schumacher looked totally assured despite the slippery surface as everyone else slithered around – he was 30s ahead of Frentzen by this stage, but then suddenly the rain got heavier. Herbert came in for inters, while Schumacher nearly lost it, bumping across the gravel but keeping it together and electing to stay out on slicks. Frentzen, trying to second-guess Schumacher, initially decided to stop for inters, then changed his mind. Then out came the tyres again as Herbert sailed past Schumacher on his new inters. Then back in again.
tyres, was fending off Jean Alesi for fifth place and Jacques Villeneuve had caught right up to Irvine. He made a move into the final corner, but slithered off into the pit road. Luckily for Jacques, he kept it going and booted the back end round to haul it across the line for fourth. Meanwhile Alesi tried an ambitious move on Coulthard at the second hairpin and punted the McLaren off, taking fifth place for himself and allowing Ralf Schumacher to take the final point for Jordan.
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
8. Alexander Wurz 
the last ten minutes of the session – which was cut even shorter when Benetton new boy Wurz planted his B197 in a wall and got the session red-flagged, signalling a manic 5-minute session. When the dust settled, it was Michael Schumacher on pole, with Villeneuve alongside. It was the first time since Hungary 1996 that a Williams was not on pole. Rubens Barrichello was an excellent third, the Stewart evidently preferring Montréal to Barcelona, with Frentzen fourth (yet still just 0.3s off Schumacher’s time.. Coulthard was fifth with the new Mercedes engine, the Jordans sixth (Fisichella) and seventh (Schumacher), with Alesi an uninspiring 8th. Häkkinen was 9th and complaining of lack of grip – he’d also had one of his fast laps disrupted by Wurz’s crash – and Panis 10th, with Wurz himself lining up 11th. Irvine was a mystified 12th, having been well up with Schumacher’s times on Friday, Hill and Diniz an encouraging 15th and 16th with new Yamaha engines, and as usual all drivers qualified – Magnussen 21st and Katayama 22nd the back row.
closely followed by Jean Alesi. As the pack made its way through the first corner complex, Mika Häkkinen had to stand on the anchors to avoid hitting Barrichello and was rear-ended by Panis. Bits of car went flying, one of which hit Irvine’s Ferrari and spun him into retirement. Katayama and Magnussen tangled trying to avoid all this and the Dane also ended up in the gravel trap. Panis came in for a new nose and Häkkinen tiptoed round to retire in the pits with a demolished rear wing, while Hill had also run over something and came in for a quick check.
Schumacher was by now storming off into the distance with Villeneuve driving cautiously in second, convinced the German must be ruining his tyres. And then, at the end of lap 2, he came into the final right/left flick before the straight a little too quickly and ended up in the wall, his race over. So the order was now Michael Schumacher leading Fisichella by just over 3s, then Alesi, Coulthard, Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher and Wurz an excellent 7th from 11th on the grid. Panis, meanwhile, was charging up through the field from 18th, setting the fastest lap en route. Frentzen was having trouble again, losing fifth to Schumacher and coming under attack from Wurz. But then, on lap 7, Ukyo Katayama’s throttle stuck open and he had a hair-raising off which brought out the safety car for three laps while it was all cleared up.
enough Salo got through, followed by Herbert. Meanwhile, Michael continued stretching his lead, Frentzen and Panis continued battling their way up through the field and second, third and fourth placed Fisichella, Alesi and Coulthard were running together until the pitstops began. On lap 25, the Jordan and the Benetton came in together, the Benetton team getting Alesi out ahead of Fisichella as the Jordan mechanics seemed to be caught on the hop. Coulthard, now second and released from behind the pair, put his foot down and set fastest lap so that by the time Schumacher came in there was only a 10s gap and David went through into the lead. The Ferrari rejoined second and set about catching him back up. Alesi and Fisichella were still running together, scrapping over third with Herbert (not having stopped) behind, while Frentzen had got up to sixth before making his own stop.
Barrichello’s race was run just before half-way with a busted gearbox, and Alex Wurz’s fine debut drive ended in much the same way a couple of laps later. Herbert finally made his stop on lap 37, but Coulthard was now increasing his lead over Schumacher and was starting to look good for the win as the McLaren swept into the pits on lap 40 with a 10s gap and one more stop expected for Schumacher. Herbert had to go in again for a 10s stop-go penalty for pit lane speeding, then it was Schumacher’s turn to make his second stop on lap 44 with Coulthard speeding up and the Scot took the lead. Now all he had to do was to stay ahead to take his second win of the year. Especially when Schumacher’s tyres became very blistered and Panis unlapped himself before the Ferrari came in again. Coulthard, now with a big gap, decided to do the same just as a precaution – only to stall the car. As the team frantically 
tried to restart the car, Panis had a big off, going nose-first into a tyre wall and out came the safety car again. With Panis was gently extracted from the wrecked Prost and the medics went to work trackside, the field circulated warily behind the pace car until, after three more laps, the decision was taken to, for the first time in history, finish the race under the safety car as Panis needed more medical treatment and it looked like it might take some time to evacuate him. The red flags waved, the cars pulled up on the grid and there was a certain amount of milling about as everyone ascertained who had actually won.
Circuit de Catalunya
may have been indifferent so far, but there wasn’t much wrong with his qualifying pace. The McLaren and Benetton teams had had much better fortunes here than as yet so far this season: Coulthard, Alesi, Häkkinen and Berger were third, fourth, fifth and sixth. McLaren’s new Mercedes engine seemed to have improved matters, but Benetton were slightly stumped as they didn’t think they’d done anything radically different. Perhaps the car just suits the circuit. All of which left Michael Schumacher back in 7th place having blown one of Ferrari’s nice new engines in the attempt. Alongside him would be the yellow Jordan of Giancarlo Fisichella, and behind him his brother Ralf, just three-hundredths of a second off his team-mate. Johnny Herbert was 10th and a little disappointed, with Irvine 11th and even more so. Panis was 12th and returnee Morbidelli 13th. In 16th, Shinji Nakano seemed to suddenly speed up and was within a second of his team leader – far better than he’d done all year. Some journalists were suggesting that his Mugen Honda engine had magically acquired a bit more power when the rumours of him being dropped had surfaced. Once more, all cars qualified, with Jan Magnussen last man on this occasion – a bit of a comedown after the heroics of Monaco.
When the race finally started, Jacques Villeneuve got away well, but Frentzen was a little tardy away and lost his place to Coulthard who nipped through and challenged Villeneuve for the lead going into the first corner. He couldn’t make the move stick, though, and slotted into second with a fast-starting Michael Schumacher now up to third from seventh on the grid. Before long he Ferrari was second, disposing of Coulthard easily enough and tucking up behind Villeneuve. At the end of the first lap, the top three were already beginning to break away, with Alesi fourth, Häkkinen fifth and Frentzen sixth.
During the pitstops, Damon Hill had made it up into the points, but just as Murray Walker was excitedly pointing this out, his engine conked out and he parked up on lap 18, joining Ukyo Katayama (gearbox, lap 12) in retirement. Villeneuve’s first stop of two put Alesi in the lap, but only for a lap until he came in (also two-stopping) and restored the Canadian to the lead ahead of Couldhard (on a 3-stopper) and Panis (who had yet to stop – the Bridgestones were lasting much better than the Goodyears), with Häkkinen, Alesi and Michael Schumacher chasing. Panis finally stopped on lap 25, meanwhile Häkkinen dropped behind Alesi and Schumacher who were going hammer and tongs. Mika came in for an early middle stop with blistered tyres – Frentzen’s had been a mess when he came in from 9th a little earlier, and Coulthard came in a couple of laps later, having nearly caught Villeneuve before doing so.
With an almost constant churn through the pits as the three and two stop strategies overlapped, and were amended on the fly as tyres blistered and wore out, it was difficult to tell who was where. Villeneuve was fairly unequivocally leading, but behind him it was all in flux: at mid-race, Alesi was second with Coulthard third, but Panis was closing fast. Mika Salo had been running a good race until his left-rear tyre literally fell apart at the end of the main straight and out he went. Panis got past Coulthard and motored off into the distance – DC came in on the next lap for his third stop, hoping fresher tyres would help, but he’d now stopped three times in 40 laps and had another 25 to go.
Catching is one thing, of course, and passing is another, but the blue car was flying – until, that is, Eddie Irvine exited the pits in 10th place and a lap down, joining the track just ahead of Panis. Unaware that the Prost driver was trying to lap him (and with no blue flags to inform him), Irvine was driving a brilliant if misguided defensive race, trying everything to keep the Prost behind him, which allowed Alesi and Schumacher to get right up behind him.
Monte Carlo Street Circuit 
Qualifying is always vital in Monaco, and the circuit often throws up some interesting results – Johnny Herbert went fastest in Thursday practice. Michael Schumacher, using a new evolution of the Ferrari engine, went fastest early in Saturday’s qualifying session, and few could get anywhere near his time. Until, that is, Heinz-Harald Frentzen went out late on and beat it by just 0.19s. Michael went back out at the last moment – crossing the line to start his lap with just 3s left – but couldn’t quite do it. So HH had his first pole position, to follow his first win at Imola. His confidence would be growing. Schumacher held on to second, with Jacques Villeneuve lining up third and still not feeling well. Fisichella was fourth, having been second for most of the session, with Coulthard fifth – the McLaren’s main problem of straight-line speed less of a problem here – and Ralf Schumacher sixth and slightly disappointed not to be higher. Herbert was 7th and Häkkinen 8th (the McLarens qualified in exactly the same places as they had last year), with Alesi’s Benetton and Barrichello’s Stewart rounding out the top ten. Berger was down in a deeply disgruntled 17th on the grid, just two places behind an equally frustrated Eddie Irvine. Hill was ahead of both in 13th, with last year’s winner Panis 12th – a bit of a departure from his recent qualifying form but lest we forget he had won from 14th in 1996. It was a tale of two Tyrrells, with Salo a respectable 14th and Verstappen last, but all again qualified within 107%.
The start came and away went Schumacher, while the two slick-shod Williamses made a slower start, meaning Fisichella was able to nip through into second while Ralf also went up to fourth between Frentzen and Villeneuve. Somehow, everyone got through Ste-Devote in one piece, and as they went into the tunnel the Ferrari already had quite a lead over Fisichella, with Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Barrichello and Herbert all following. The only casualty of lap 1, in fact, was Pedro Diniz, who slid off at Portier. It was a Jordan 2-3 before the end of the lap as Ralf got ahead of Frentzen, and soon enough Barrichello, Herbert and a fast-starting Panis were through too, and the rain still came down. On lap 2, Coulthard lost the back end going into the chicane and 
spun in the worst possible spot. As everyone braked to avoid him, Häkkinen slithered into the back of Alesi’s Benetton and wiped the left-front wheel off his McLaren. Alesi’s rear end was lifted in the air and he bumped across the chicane rumble-strips and rejoined the circuit just ahead of Irvine, who hit the anchors and collected a Damon Hill in the rear. Damon was out with broken front suspension and Arrows started packing their bags.
was lapping an unhappy Villeneuve (13th) and had a gap of over 30s to second-placed Barrichello. The Brazilian was another 17s ahead of Fisichella, the Stewart’s normally underpowered Ford V8 just right for the conditions with its smooth power output. Panis was now running fourth, Irvine fifth and Salo an excellent sixth with Alesi right on his gearbox. The Frenchman was known to be good in the wet but the Benetton malaise seemed to be affecting him as he spun at Portier trying to pass Salo, then stalled his engine trying to get back facing the right way. Villeneuve clouted a barrier on lap 17 while fiddling with his brake balance and trailed in to retire in the pits for his third DNF in five races. Nine retirements out of 22 so far, and just 20 laps gone.
Panis clearly had a feeling of deja vu as he was coming right up behind Fisichella who was tiptoeing a little but showing a lot more calm than the Frenchman behind who kept getting it ragged and sideways as he chased. After an hour, Michael had completed 30 of the scheduled 72 laps and it looked very likely that we had a 2-hour race rather than a full-distance one. The lead Ferrari came in for a tyre/fuel stop with enough time for an oil change and full service before Barrichello came through. Eddie Irvine had caught up to the Fisichella-Panis battle for third, and the young Italian seemed discombobulated, letting Panis through. As the Frenchman disappeared off into the distance and Irvine followed him at the chicane, Jordan pulled him in to the pits for his own stop.
get back on the track, but he was in no danger of losing the lead. With ten minutes left, most of the field had settled down and the top six seemed set, barring any late accidents. The only question was over fifth place, where Mika Salo in a damaged Tyrrell was being caught by Fisichella. As the last minute ticked down, Michael Schumacher slowed dramatically – with a huge gap over Barrichello, he wanted to make sure he didn’t cross the line until after time had expired, otherwise he’d have to do another lap.
Barrichello crossed the line after a blissfully uneventful race, still 53s off Schumacher’s time, with Irvine third. Panis was fourth and Salo held on to fifth ahead of Fisichella, having not actually stopped for fuel at all. The Stewart team were also happy to see Jan Magnussen make it home 7th despite a couple of hairy moments. It wasn’t a bad way to take their first finish. Verstappen, Berger and Katayama were the last drivers running at the end. Once again, the organisers got Eddie’s flag wrong and gave him the Irish tricolour.
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola
Of course, the fans at the circuit mostly couldn’t care less about the Jordans, even if there was an Italian in one of the cars. They were here for the Ferraris – though there was also some attention given to Gerhard Berger, who would be starting his 200th race here at the age of 37. Not only had Berger had two stints at Ferrari, but he had endured his famous fiery crash at Tamburello in 1989. Many suspected this might be his final Imola race, but the man himself seemed happy enough in his car. Johnny Herbert, meanwhile, would make his 100th start. Tyrrell had had some moderate success with their x-wings and kept them here.
to continue his 100% streak in 1997. Michael Schumacher lined up his Ferrari third, with Olivier Panis fourth. As if pre-ordained, Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella were side-by-side on row 3, ahead of Herbert and Häkkinen in 7th and 8th. Behind them was Irvine, complaining of understeer and nearly a full second off his team leader, and Coulthard. 10th on the grid for the Scot was actually not bad considering he’d had a big off early in qualifying and set his time with the spare car and a thumping headache. Ron Dennis simply sighed and called 8th and 10th places “character-building”. Berger was 11th, with Alesi back in 14th on yet another bad weekend for the Benettons, Hill 15th and once again all drivers were comfortably inside 107% and so 22 cars would start on Sunday.
way and that, but to no avail. Villeneuve wasn’t able to pull away as usual, though, as the first four ran close together, Schumachers M and R split by Frentzen’s Williams. After a couple of laps, though, he seemed to get the measure of the conditions and sped up, while Magnussen on lap 3 and Berger on lap 5 both made unforced errors and wound up in the kitty-litter. Not a great 200th race to remember for Gerhard – he’d got away very badly when his gearbox had selected neutral for him instead of first, and dropped to 19th, and had been trying to charge up the field.
Schumacher and still in the lead. He had to work hard to keep the Ferrari behind him for half a lap until his tyres reached temperature, but when the proverbial dust settled the order had been reversed. Frentzen led, Michael Schumacher second and Villeneuve third. And the Williams new boy was easing away. He’d come in for a lot of stick over the season so far, particularly from the British press who resented him taking Damon Hill’s seat – and not entirely unjustified; he had still yet to score a point this year.
The number 4 Williams swept in and out, a good stop, and the race would now turn on the next few minutes. Schumacher was due in next but got stuck behind Nicola Larini coming into the pits and was held up. The team made a really quick stop but the damage was done and Frentzen was back in the lead. Fisichella and Irvine stopped within a lap of each other and the Ferrari ended up running third with the Jordan behind. Behind them again, Alesi and Häkkinen were also scrapping over fifth place, both on one-stop strategies with no more stops to make.
Schumacher now had just 12 laps to catch Frentzen, and was working on it. He got the gap down to just over 3s, but Frentzen responded and when the pair spent a couple of laps getting past the Alesi-Häkkinen battle, Schumacher had really lost his chance. Heinz-Harald answered his critics in the best possible fashion with his maiden win, having beaten both Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve fair and square. Schumacher finished just 1.2s behind and Eddie Irvine was a distant third, some 1 minute 15s behind for a Ferrari 2-3. Fisichella was a satisfied 4th for his first F1 points, and Alesi and Häkkinen took the last points.
Turbos and Tantrums 